WILL POWER

IT HAS BIGGER POWER THEN YOU THINK.

WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A WAY

It’s a new year, a new opportunity for a new you! Let’s wipe the slate clean and start fresh, just like we said to ourselves last year… and the year before that… and probably the one before that, too.

For those of us who fall off the healthy wagon time and time again, what is it that stops us from reaching our fitness goals? What stops us from achieving success in almost all of our New Year’s resolutions?

Well, we all know the answer – it’s all about will power. You want to do the right thing; you want to go to the gym; you want to eat healthy, nutritious food, but it’s just sooo easy to grab take out. It’s so easy to say, “I’ll go tomorrow,” “I’ll do it later.”

But what people fail to realize is, it’s not because you’re lazy that you didn’t go to the gym; it’s not that you just “don’t want it bad enough.” You chose to grab fast food instead of cooking a wholesome meal. You chose to watch TV instead of working out. We make these choices because our will power is a limited resource, kind of like the battery on a cell phone. Each morning it’s fully charged, but as the day goes on, and you resist the urge to check Facebook when you should be working, grab the chicken salad when you fancy the french fries, hold your tongue when your boss blames you for his own mistakes, keep control of your anger when someone cuts you off when driving home, your will power wears down. These everyday events hack away at the battery life of your will power, so when it comes to the important decisions of the day, you make them based on the level of life left in that battery.

We all know that limited resources must be managed; yet we fail to recognize our will power as one of those resources. We jump in the deep end, head first on diets and new fitness regimes as though our supply of will power is endless. However, will power is a valuable resource that must be managed.

We lose our will power not because we think about it, but because we neglect to think about it at all, without appreciating that it can come and go. It does exactly that; we go from “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” to, “No will… No f***ing way.” What is it that wears down our will power day in and day out? The list below includes many of the things we deal with that drain our battery’s life on a daily basis.

WHAT TAXES YOUR WILL POWER?

Filtering distractions

Trying to impress others

Resisting temptation

Coping with fear

Suppressing emotion

Doing things you don’t like

Restraining aggression

Suppressing impulses

So how do you manage the limited resource that is your will power? It may be a limited energy, but luckily, it’s also a renewable energy. So, every morning, when you wake up with a fully charged battery (how full will depend on your quality of sleep), you should start with your most important and hardest tasks first.

For example, if your New Year’s resolution is to get in shape and get fit, you will find it a lot easier to get out of bed earlier and workout first thing in the morning, than you would getting to the gym after a full day’s work; and the quality of the workout will be better.

Recognize that you don’t have an endless supply of will power. Don’t jump in with both feet to something that is completely new to you. Be aware of the things that drain your energy and work to avoid them. Take it one step at a time, one choice at a time, and before you know it, you’ll be looking at a new you.